Thursday, April 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
It has been a long road back for UNLV engineering student Lorraine Mosca after a punch from a teenage thief during a "swarm" robbery put her in a coma.
The 23-year-old woman, who tried to thwart the mass escape from the Wherehouse music store where she worked, was left with permanent brain damage that required several surgeries.
Her mother said she needs at least one more trip to the operating room.
Traveling in a wheelchair and wearing a shiny bicycle helmet to protect her fragile skull from further damage, Mosca's presence was imposing in court Wednesday for the sentencing of her attackers.
She smiled and exchanged pleasantries with well-wishers.
But when it came to giving a statement to the court about the impact the Oct. 7 incident has had on her life, Mosca uttered only one phrase before she broke down sobbing.
"I was told right from wrong" was all Mosca could tell visiting District Judge Norm Robison of Minden, who was hearing the case for suspended District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni.
When the tears came, her mother, Lucille Mosca, continued to read her daughter's statement: "They were doing wrong. Why did they do this to me?"
Andre Colon, the 18-year-old who punched the UNLV student while trying to free another thief that Mosca had captured, apologized to his victim in a brief court statement.
"I'm sorry for what happened. I'm sorry for my family. I'm sorry, you know what I'm saying?" Colon said unemotionally. "I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm not asking for no handouts."
He knew he was going to prison and Robison didn't disappoint him. The judge gave Colon a sentence of eight to 20 years.
Rasool Ramoz, 18, and Marcus Hall, 19, the two others convicted in the theft spree and attack on Mosca and another Wherehouse employee, received five- to 20-year sentences.
Throughout the hearing, Mosca was comforted and often hugged by her parents, Lucille and Salvatore Mosca. But they showed no emotion when the sentences were announced.
Lucille Mosca had described her daughter as a "happy and intelligent college student looking forward to a promising future" before the punch by Colon sent her head crunching to the pavement outside the store at 320 S. Decatur Blvd.
"My family lived at the trauma center for four weeks" while the young woman was in a coma, she said.
The woman chastised the three defendants for their failure to show remorse over the results of the theft spree that involved 20 to 25 teenagers.
"We know the defendants will be released from prison someday but Lorraine will never entirely be released from her (prison)," Lucille Mosca said in asking Robison to hand down the stiffest possible sentences.
Deputy District Attorney Mel Harmon noted that Hall and Ramoz were the ones who orchestrated the theft spree and mass escape by the teens who "swept over Mosca like a tidal wave."
As a result of her injuries, Harmon said, Mosca has had to learn again how to walk, eat, talk and even breathe.
In his statement to the court, Hall denied there was a plan to steal from the Wherehouse music store.
"I went in to purchase CDs and everything went wild," he told the judge.
"It's too bad you couldn't have thought about that before it happened," Robison responded.
Ramoz simply apologized to the Mosca family and then to his own family.
Harmon recommended that all three be given eight- to 20-year sentences, but Robison decided the instigators were somewhat less culpable than the man who threw the punch.
The three teenagers were convicted Feb. 26 of some charges and acquitted of others in a verdict that came after six hours of deliberations.
The second clerk, Kristine Lukehart, 18, suffered a broken nose as she attempted the stop the stampede. Her attacker was a juvenile boy who is serving a term at a youth camp.
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